British Gas HomeCare - 8 year-old boiler condemned due to years of corrosion

ollski

Spirit666 wrote: »

Hi

You can request to see the job reports to see what they have wrote. It will be in abbrevations but if they engineer has reported it then sorry you might not get anything.

Do you mean that the other way round?, surely if they have noted corrosion then they will be liable, if they haven't noted it then its probably because it wasn't there.
Although I agree 7 years is really too long to offer a replacement boiler it has to be that long as that is the manufacturers legal responsibility to supply parts to effect a repair.
I appreciate the sentiment about bg enginers but I really think its out of date. Bonuses are now targetted towards first visit fixes and quality over quantity. I am a bg engineer and I can't believe anyone would risk their job by not undoing two screws to take the case off the easiest boiler in the world to service. We recently used contractors to bump up availability in the cold spell and I have to say the quality was shocking, genuinely unbelievable and the work ethic really poor. I would guess the truth must lie somewhere between our experiences.

Spirit666

ollski wrote: »

Do you mean that the other way round?, surely if they have noted corrosion then they will be liable, if they haven't noted it then its probably because it wasn't there.
Although I agree 7 years is really too long to offer a replacement boiler it has to be that long as that is the manufacturers legal responsibility to supply parts to effect a repair.
I appreciate the sentiment about bg enginers but I really think its out of date. Bonuses are now targetted towards first visit fixes and quality over quantity. I am a bg engineer and I can't believe anyone would risk their job by not undoing two screws to take the case off the easiest boiler in the world to service. We recently used contractors to bump up availability in the cold spell and I have to say the quality was shocking, genuinely unbelievable and the work ethic really poor. I would guess the truth must lie somewhere between our experiences.

Sorry but there are plenty engineers out there contractors and BG alike that will do anything to get in and out of a job as quickly as possible bacause of the way the bonus scheme is used.

Also there are plenty of team talks that I have been to in the past that show you pictures of mistakes that both BG and other engineers have missed and we all sit there going why would you know fix that/see that or leave that and we all know cause that is what happens.

I dont believe that the corrsion has been over a long period of time I believe it also depends on the type of repair that the previous call outs have been. ie was it a problem on the system or the boiler itself. If the engineer has made a point of telling the customer about any issues with the system like dirty water in radiators informed them of a magnaclean or anything to solve circulation problems then she has nothing to moan about because she was told how to fix the the problem. If you have done something to fix it then ther will be an obligation on BG to solve her problem.

I just also want to say there are plenty of good engineers out there both working for BG and other companies. It just takes 2 seconds for a BG engineer not to write something down on the paperwork or not to log it on the computer system for it all to go against them, and vica versa. I can just see it from both sides of the story.:)

Premier_2

Is it just me that, when a tradesman enters my home, I tend to keep an eye on what they are doing?

You never know what they might otherwise get up to, and whilst you may not have a clue what a boiler service involves, I'm sure even the most unknowledgeable would question it had been done correctly if the cover was not even removed.

By watching tradesman, you usually get some good advice whilst chatting to them, advice they may not wish to officially report and you may even pick up how to do things for yourself in future, and even if not (especially with gas), at least after you've seen a few services, you should have a good idea whether the engineer appears to be carrying one out correctly.

Spirit666

I agree with the last post. If you watch and talk to the engineer they should be happy enough to show you what they are doing and you can get and idea as to what they are doing.

Not all services require the main case to be open especially on condensing boilers but it is always good pratice to open it up and just check everything looks ok. But the boiler in question should be opened and im not saying that the guys have not opened up the boiler everything might have gave him the right readings and he has not thought that the damage was as bad as he said until he took out the heat exchanger.

I really hope you get somewhere with it all

C_Mababejive

I have no issues with having conversations with customers. Its all part of the service. It promotes trust and a better working relationship and assists in making the customer feel respected, cared for and served well.

Pincher

Maybe it's time to make a gas MOT compulsory.

Three year+ old boilers have to pass a safety check,
or else they get disconnected. It will certainly be a shock to a lot of people, who prefer not to know how wretched their boilers actually are.

Bounceback

Thanks for all comments. Just to clarify the boiler cover was removed in October. The boiler is situated in small utility area off the kitchen and it is not possible to watch what the engineer doing. I could see he took the outer cover off as it was put to one side.

I understand that the corrosion at the rear of the boiler may not have been noticed during service due to its location.

I am not a plumber and have no technical knowledge of this at all so perhaps you could clarify a couple of points please.
Would the corrosion at the front have been visible at all in October?
In your experience how long does it take to get that bad?
Once the corrosion at the front was discovered what action could have been taken to prolong the life of the boiler?

Many thanks again in advance.

Bounceback

Thank you everyone for all your help. Just to let you know there was a happy ending to the story (hurrah!) After a massively long 15 weeks with no boiler, British Gas did the right thing and gave me a brand new boiler, they were very polite, and because I had been without a boiler for so long when they fitted it I needed a lot of extras (new radiator, ballcock and valve) which were all replaced free of charge. The engineer was very polite, and afterwards I had a call from the Ops Director and had a refund of the money I had spent on HomeCare whilst not having a boiler.

I wish it hadn't taken so long, but the fight was worth it in the end.

broxis11

Bounceback wrote: »

Thank you everyone for all your help. Just to let you know there was a happy ending to the story (hurrah!) After a massively long 15 weeks with no boiler, British Gas did the right thing and gave me a brand new boiler, they were very polite, and because I had been without a boiler for so long when they fitted it I needed a lot of extras (new radiator, ballcock and valve) which were all replaced free of charge. The engineer was very polite, and afterwards I had a call from the Ops Director and had a refund of the money I had spent on HomeCare whilst not having a boiler.

I wish it hadn't taken so long, but the fight was worth it in the end.

That`s great news!

ihateyes

broxis11 wrote: »

That`s great news!

excellent news......
just remember you will still pay your payments as your new boiler was installed under the t&c's